Many types of products may be ordered over the phone or online for delivery directly to a customer, including grocery items and other consumables. Efficient handling and shipping of consumable products may present special challenges to merchants of such products. For example, orders for grocery items may consist of a larger number of items in a variety of sizes and weights. The different items may also have different handling and packaging requirements. For example, ambient items, such as dry goods, may be stored in one part of the warehouse and may require bagging, based on customer preference, before being placed in a shipping container. Frozen or chilled items, such as ice cream or orange juice, may be stored in a different part of the warehouse and require packaging with cold packs or other special materials to ensure these items remain cold up to delivery. In addition, because of the perishable nature of many grocery items, these products may need to be picked from inventory and packed for shipping very close to the time of delivery.
Traditional handling and shipping methods for such items may require one or more items to be picked from inventory and moved to a packing location, where the items are packed in shipping containers for shipping to the customer. This may not be efficient, however, since the items are handled by inventory personnel multiple times in the picking and packing process. Further, the items may be packed separately in separate shipping containers if they are picked from different areas of the warehouse at different times, creating an inefficient use of shipping container space and a waste of packaging and container supplies.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure made herein is presented.